SHANGHAI TOP TIPS

Hold onto your hats as Shanghai is a brilliant place to visit.

Here are my top tips...

1. Take the MAGLEV train into town... about £5 one way.

2. Taxis are cheep but be careful not to get ripped off.

3. Have the address of the hotel printed out in English and Chinese (use Bing translate), in BIG type so you can give it to taxi drivers to help get you to the hotel.

4. Do not drink the water – bottled only

5. Tipping is not like the US, no need to tip taxi drivers etc

6. Max taxi fare after a 40min taxi ride was £6.50 (2016)

7. Tube / subway is excellent. Buy from the vending machines (not all of them sell tickets). Just name the line you are going too and select the stop, small notes are best and then you get your ticket. All day 24hrs ticket is 18 if you are going to do a lot of travel. Also a 72 hours ticket for about £7 is available.

9. Some locals will try and rip you off. Be careful of a Tea Scam. Students approach you wanting a photo taken (I experienced this), anyway they invite you to a “tea demonstration”. It is a con. At the end they want lots of cash for the show. We never got this far but many have been tricked by this or worse. Rule of thumb: if they speak to you they are trying to rip you off. You may miss out on some good things but in the city it could just save you from a terrible experience so on balance be careful.

Some ideas for a plan:

Decide the day you want to visit and book the ERA show. Its about £19 per person. These cheaper seats are still good. LEAVE ENOUGH time to get to the show. We were nearly late and lots of people on trip adviser talk of being late.

Day of arrival get going and Tube into town Nanjing road walk East towards the Bund Possibly visit the Fairmont hotel and have a drink in the Peace hotel. At the Bund take in the view and then walk South to the Ferry Take Ferry to Pudong Walk to the TV tower area and eat. Walk to the Financial Tower and pay £15 to visit. If on budget go to the Hyatt tower and have a drink. In 2014 Go up the Shanghai tower 632m of it.

Tube to YU Gardens and walk around shops plus visit the gardens near the bridge over the pond £3? entry Go to DAPUQIAO exit 1 I think. Visit matrix of shops on opposite side of the road. Eat in ORIGIN. www.originish.com Not in the winter but visit Fuxing Park for a break Visit Xin Tian Di – opposite Godiva cafe is a shopping Mall. On the first floor turn 180 degrees left. There is a line of chairs. Go to the end of the line and book in for food £15 all in.

Tube to JADE Buddha Temple..then walk the shops to the East of this area Visit Urban planning museum – yes this is worth it, Visit Shanghai museum M&S cafe is great – a tea is £3.80 but the rest is western and better value, plus its a nice oasis.

Visit ZHOU ZHUANG.. I have also visited Suzhou and although slightly easier to get to is not half as good. Consider staying at the Youth Hostel in Zhou Zhuang and taking a camera is a must. Options are a bus at around 09:30 from near the football stadium or a mini bus. The entry fee of £12ish is included in the bus ticket. Do your research for this one in advance but life is an adventure so do it.

Apparently there is also some shopping but frankly what I saw was poor quality..... anyway there is lots more to do in this brilliant city.